Kawambwa DC commends govt for hearing people’s plea

—–Kawambwa District Commissioner, Ivor Mpasa, has commended government for accepting the request for a modern district hospital.

Mr Mpasa said currently the structure that was being used as a District Hospital was built in 1955 and the facility was failing to cope with the ever increasing demand following the increase in population over time.

The District Commissioner said the council has already offered land for the construction of a modern hospital and Ministry of Health officials had already been to the site to look at the land.

Mr Mpasa said he was happy that government had already advertised for a contractor so that the district could have a new modern facility for medical care and services for the Kawambwa population.

And a new traditional ceremony, called Musubilwa Mpemba for the Unga people of Lunga district, is born.

Local Government and Housing Minister, Emerine Kabanshi who graced the first ever meeting for Unga people at Nsamba Primary School in Lunga District has disclosed that the new traditional ceremony was good for the Lunga people.

Ms Kabanshi said it was good for Lunga to have a ceremony of their own in the area because it brings people together and enables them to share common goals.

She added that it is at traditional ceremonies that people dance together, plan and reflect on the way they have been handled by the traditional leaders.

The minister added that following the revised decentralisation policy, it was important to put traditional ceremonies at the centre because they were good platforms of engaging the local people in getting involved in their own development at local level.

Ms Kabanshi said traditional ceremonies could be used as meetings for sensitising the people in the implementation process of the decentralisation policy.

She said people should find a way of participating in national development by getting involved in community affairs like cleaning up their environment without being paid.

The minister said people should start taking keen interest and attending council meetings for them to know what was happening regarding development in their areas because if they do not, they would be lagging behind.

Ms Kabanshi said the people of Lunga decided to come up with their own traditional ceremony in the spirit of decentralisation because even culture must be decentralised to the local people and Lunga people had their own history which they wanted to be reminding themselves about during their traditional ceremony.

She said the ceremony will remind them of what they went through during those days and how they defeated the Bisa people of the time.

Ms Kabanshi added that the ceremony will also help to open up the area because in the past, no one knew about the existence of the area and the Unga people.

She said the traditional ceremony will help the Unga people to sell their language and their culture to the outside world and promote tourism for the area.

The minister said the ceremony was launched last year and has been held this year as the first event because the previous year was just the launch.

Those who attended the ceremony included Senior Chief Kalimankonde, chief Nsamba, Chief Bwalya Mponda and Kasoma Lunga of the Unga people.

Also present were Ngumbo Senior Chief Mwewa, Chief Mwansakombe, and Chieftainess Mulongwe of Mbabala Island with several Sub-chiefs and their subjects.